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I stupidly purchased a cross pin diff from MiniSpeed which had the main pin held in by a roll pin. That ground away and the main pin came out, ruining my gearbox. I have since bought two gearboxes and both have been fraudulently described as OK. As the MCR magazine editor is more interested in the ridiculous ravings of one of her mates and not in warning anyone with a cross pin diff that uses an inadequate roll pin to secure it I want to warn anyone with one to change it before major damage is done. I now have a new Mini Spares cross pin diff with what looks like a far better engineered Allen key to hold it together. Anyone else suffered as I have with a badly designed cross pin diff?

I have heard of a minispeed diff going bang after about 1000 miles on a 60 hp 1000cc,

The Minispares Diffs are used by most of the turbo guys and seem to be pretty much indesructable.

The minispeed Diffs have the cross pins at 90 degress, the minispares ones are at a different angle which apparently spreads the loading better on the planet gears or somthing...

davidmross wrote: As the MCR magazine editor is more interested in the ridiculous ravings of one of her mates and not in warning anyone with a cross pin diff that uses an inadequate roll pin to secure it I want to warn anyone with one to change it before major damage is done.

Errrrr what are you saying here, may be that Mini Spares advertise in the MCR magazine and that Lesley Young is therefore not prepared to publish anything which is critical of said advertiser?

Far from it Steady Eddie. It was not the Mini Spares diff that I was critical of, it was the Mini Speed one. I accept that Mini Speed didn't make their own diff as I understand it's a GP diff. The point is, the diff I purchased from Mini Speed was simply not fit for purpose. The roll pin is not strong enough to secure the main pin and stop it turning. Apparently, they don't make them like that any more. Unfortunately, while I had done only circa 1,000 miles before the roll pin diff packed up, I had bought it close to three years ago - so no warranty. My only concern with the Mini Spares version is that the securing Allen bolt is not a tight fit in the main pin - but maybe it should not be. All I wanted to do was warn others who might be affected as it's a very expensive thing to put right but it seems giving vent to totally non-Cooper S associated rantings is more important to the MCR than providing a service to members. It's not the first disagreement I have had with the MCR but then my Cooper S isn't a works car and isn't intended to be passed off as an accurate to the last nut and bolt rally replica so I'm not one of the 'in' crowd. It's just a car I enjoy - when it's not breaking something!

davidmross wrote: All I wanted to do was warn others who might be affected as it's a very expensive thing to put right but it seems giving vent to totally non-Cooper S associated rantings is more important to the MCR than providing a service to members. It's not the first disagreement I have had with the MCR but then my Cooper S isn't a works car and isn't intended to be passed off as an accurate to the last nut and bolt rally replica so I'm not one of the 'in' crowd. It's just a car I enjoy

So I assume you sent a letter for publication in the MCR magazine pointing out the shortcomings of the said component and the editor refused to publish it? When was this?

regards and Happy New Year

Steady Eddie

Broke one of these back in '93, when it was called the 'MiniTorque Diff' lasted just a couple of months. Mini-it's sorted it for me even though it was over a year old, this was the first version without the pin. The pin was added after a lot of breakages, then minisport purchased the design, never used it bought the spares diff as it came out about that time. Never had a problem since.

To Steady Eddie:

No. Lesley Young didn't refuse to publish it. I sent it as an article which I 'understood' was to be published in the first A4 magazine. But it didn't go in. That didn't bother me. What did was my belief that those with this type of diff should be warned of the possibility of real damage. Damage to components that are becoming ever more difficult to source. The new mag looks very good but this issue had very little of interest where Mini mechanicals are concerned. There are people in the MCR hierarchy who could provide a lot of very useful technical advice, but maybe they prefer to keep it to themselves.

Thats what forums are for - good old slagging of of crappy components...lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218

It´s actually a Mini turkey tuning part he complain about.

Tulka

I too have heard of Mini Speed X-pin diffs causing problems.

I would also never use anything less than the excellent Mini Spares item.